1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a water soluble terpolymer composition and its use as a flocculant. The terpolymers of this invention contain acrylamide or acrylamide derivatives, a cationic vinyl monomer, and the following general class of hydrophilic vinyl monomer: EQU CH.sub.2 C(R)C(O)O(CH.sub.2 (CH.sub.2)hd mO).sub.n E (I)
where R is hydrogen or alkyl, E is hydrogen or alkyl, m is an integer from 1 to 3, and n is an integer 1 to 25.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Copolymers of acrylamide and cationic vinyl monomers are well known and have long been used as flocculants for water and waste water treatment, mineral beneficiation, and pulp and paper processing. The general purpose of these flocculants is to aggregate suspensions of colloidal particles, resulting in improved settling or dewatering of the flocculated particles. For economic reasons, it is desirable to achieve the greatest amount of flocculation using the smallest flocculant dose. It is an object of this invention to provide terpolymers with surprising flocculation activity compared to conventional copolymer flocculants. Still other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the following detailed description.